Joe Keohane: The Power of Strangers

Join us in the Athenaeum Garden for our first summer salon!

In our cities, we stand in silence at the pharmacy and in check-out lines at the grocery store, distracted by our phones, barely acknowledging one another, even as rates of loneliness skyrocket. Online, we retreat into ideological silos reinforced by algorithms designed to serve us only familiar ideas and like-minded users. But what if strangers—so often blamed for our problems—are actually the solution?

In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane sets out on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. He gathered practical tips from experts on how to talk to strangers, and tried them out himself in the wild, to awkward, entertaining, and frequently poignant effect. Ultimately he discovered that talking to strangers isn’t just a way to live; it’s a way to survive.

Joe Keohane is a veteran journalist who has worked as an editor at Medium, Esquire, Entrepreneur, and Hemispheres. His writing—on everything from politics, to travel, to social science, business, and technology—has appeared in New York magazine, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Wired, Boston magazine, and The New Republic. Born in the Boston area, he currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter. The Power of Strangers is his first book.

Tickets: Free to Athenaeum Members, $15 Non-members
Register here!

This event will be outdoors. Please bring a folding lawn chair if you have one.